Breakable
by FizzyWitch
Summary: AU. He decides to keep her. Rose/The Doctor
1. Chapter 1

_You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're gonna get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming, or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible. Like maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty six, five billion years in your future, and this is the day... Hold on... This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world. _

- The Doctor, The End Of The World

Today is the day before her fiftieth birthday. She doesn't celebrate birthdays on the TARDIS, she doesn't want to remind him of her age. Of time passing. She doesn't want to remind herself that she is another year closer to him having to leave her behind.

She looks into the mirror in their bedroom. She's aged well, she stopped dying her hair blonde years ago but it grows in that way on its own now. Some quirk of genetics. Only a few grey hairs to be found, and it travels down her back in waves. The years of running have kept her slim. And when The Doctor looks at her she doesn't stop and wonder if he thinks she is beautiful. Although that may be slightly due to the perks of having a psychic bond with your - not husband, not boyfriend- partner.

But her face doesn't lie. There are wrinkles at the corners of her eyes that didn't used to be there. She looks away, because it's easier than acknowledging it. She can still run with him. She's not too old. But the word "Yet" lingers at the end of the thought.

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The Doctor realizes that he isn't strong enough to let her go on her fifty-fith birthday. He knows, he always knows when its her birthday. It's the first day in her timeline. He can see the amount of time she's been alive anytime he looks at her, hell, even when he thinks about her. It's always there. But she never reminds him, someday perhaps he'll thank her for that.

He knows that she knows that the end of their time together on the TARDIS is coming. But what she doesn't know, what he keeps behind the door in his mind- truly he only secret from her at this point- is that the day he was going to send her away has come and gone.

Once, he had forced himself to destroy an entire world. Now, he can't even stand the thought of sending this human woman away from his side. He's gone soft. He can't even bring himself to regret it.

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She is sixty today, Rose realizes. Her hand is clasped in his and they are running from a group of blue aliens with spears that don't look ceremonial. She is sixty years old, and she is pretty sure she has developed arthritis in her knees. And it hurts. She grips his hand tighter, pushes herself to be a little faster for him. A little stronger. He looks back at her, checking to make sure she is keeping up. When she was nineteen he did that too, she tries to comfort herself. But it's empty reassurance. Because Rose knows when he looks into her eyes that he has decided to keep her.

And he can't.

They have reached the TARDIS, and they are safe for the moment. In something that has become a ritual between them he doesn't let go of her hand right away but gallantly, with a flourish places a kiss on her palm. She laughs like she did twenty-five years ago, the first time he did it. She thinks that is why he still does it, even after all this time. The Doctor has always been able to make her laugh harder than anyone else.

This time her laughter is tinged with sadness. Honestly, when she promised him forever she didn't think the her forever was going to be past forty. Not with the life they lived. Not to mention, she always thought he would have pushed her out the door by now. She never thought that'd she'd have to leave willingly. To protect him. Of course, that was why she stayed in the first place.

She wanders a bit down a corridor in the TARDIS, she can still see him standing at the console from this distance. She leans back against the cold wall of the TARDIS. His face hasn't changed, still expressive and his hair still a right mess.

After an incident on a planet where she was mistaken for his mother (her stomach still twists when she remembers it) and they were arrested for displaying affection he has started frosting his hair with grey. Or rather he has Jackie do it for him when they visit. It suits him. He looks charming, she thinks, she doesn't tell him (because he'd be even more full of himself if she did) but he knows she likes it just the same. He could do the jaborical dance of the wuhmpa-wumpas and she'd probably still think it was charming. Because it's her Doctor. She smiles.

And she walks back into the control room and mentions that it is about time for a visit to her Mum. If he sneaks a look in a mirror to check and see if his roots need coloring she doesn't mention it.

One of the unique little twists that come with being a time traveler is that while Rose just turned sixty yesterday, Jackie is only seventy-three. To the rest of London, Rose Tyler is only fifty years old. But you know what they say, spend forty years on a TARDIS that travels through space and time... and you get old. Well, maybe they don't say that. But Rose does.

She says it too remind herself why this time, once she gets off the TARDIS she will be asking the Doctor to leave her behind.

The Doctor never credited Jackie with much intelligence - Oh, he liked her well enough after a while- but as soon as Rose made eye contact with her, Jackie was out the door in a flash, making excuses about needing to get supplies for Christmas if they were staying, because of course it's Christmas, and couldn't they just call before they popped into the middle of her flat?

"Rose?" and the Doctor is looking at her with a thousand questions painted on his face. And she can't- physically can't, her throat is choked by a lump the size of space itself- tell him. So she takes his hand, and lets the last door in her mind swing open to admit him.

He was going to keep her. He wasn't going to let her leave him. She had promised forever. And he _wanted_ it. With every fiber of his being he wanted her _forever._ The pain of it was threatening to drive him to his knees. The thought of not being able to sneak into bed with her for an hour of blissful sleep in her arms everynight. Not being able to run with his pink and yellow girl (because even now, that was how he still saw her). Rassilion...

She was so young. Forty years with her wasn't enough. Angry. He could be angry about this. That would be so much easier than acknowledging that he was feeling betrayed by her for growing up.

But then he looked at her. And she was weeping. And through the link one thought was repeated over and over again, so strongly that it hurt.

_I'm doing this for him. Always. For him... _

And he realized she was saving him again. His hearts broke, and she held him tighter.

Then she asked if he would stay for Christmas.

So he did.

They had spent their first Christmas with Charles Dickens. Rose thinks that it seems only right that they end up watching 'A Muppet's Christmas Carol' on the telly after dinner. Poetic really.

He would come back and visit. Might even stay a while when he came. And she would have her jiggery-poked mobile. She could call him if she needed him. But it wouldn't be the same, and Rose knew that. She was strong enough to handle that, but she was weak enough to take anything he could give.

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Through out the course of their time together The Doctor has only told Rose that he loved her twice. As they prepare to say goodbye he finds himself wishing he had said it more.

She has always said it to him so easily. That first time, after she stayed up all night waiting for him to come back from exploring an alien planet that didn't provide the correct atmosphere for humans. He had told her he would be gone an hour. It hadn't quite worked out that way.

It was innocent really, he had been studying the (sentient) Breathing Star Flowers that were native to the planet and become embroiled in a battle to keep them from being harvested by a group of nomadic alien crafters-called the Yutieks- and used as an ingredient in perfume. He settled both parties down after a bit. Now they even have an amicable trade partnership, exchanging fertilization services for pollen. But he had left Rose for over twenty-four hours.

He had walked through the doors of the TARDIS completely oblivious to her worry. He had started regaling her with his story as soon as he had seen her sitting at the jump seat in the control room.

Rose had marched up to him and proved that the Jackie Tyler slap was passed down genetically. He had looked at her in shock, only then seeing the bags under her eyes and acknowledging the clothes from the previous day that she still wore.

"You scared me." She said.

"Rose," He had said. Trying to build up to an apology.

She poked him in the chest. "I." Poke. "Love." Poke. "You." Poke. "Idiot."

And she grabbed the lapels of his suit and kissed him. Breaking all the careful, fragile boundaries he thought they had agreed on.

She touched his face as he tried to reply, choking on the words. She smiled at him, a tongue-to-teeth smile that made him feel giddy and terrified at the same time. "Hey," she pressed a finger to his lips. "I know."

Then she turned and started to walk away, back to her bedroom in the TARDIS.

He stared after her with wide eyes, and an open mouth.

The next morning he came into the kitchen to find her making tea. Her hair up in a messy knot, not a stitch of makeup on and she was still in her jim-jams and fluffy slippers. He thought she looked lovely.

She hadn't seen him come in. He watched her pour two cups, his with four scoops of sugar (he watched her wrinkle her nose at it in distaste, even as she stirred) something that he realized had become part of their routine. It was so domestic, and for the first time that didn't bother him. As much.

She lifted the two cups of tea and started when she saw him standing in the doorway.

"Good morning." She handed him his mug. He watched her blush when their hands touched. Gone was the confidence of the night before. In place was just Rose.

The silence had stretched long enough to be uncomfortable, and he realized he was just staring at her. Rose stared at her feet. Her eyes flicked up to his.

"Doc-"

"I love you."

Rose had dropped her tea-cup.

And that was the first time that he had said he loved her. After that though, whenever Rose said she loved him (and she said it quite often) he would just ask her "Do you know?" And she would always smile and say yes. Of course she did.


	2. Chapter 2

Breakable

Chapter Two

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in the update, my Mom's in the Hospital and I've relocated to take care of her for a month or two. She almost didn't make it at one point, so we are all feeling very blessed right now to have her with us and recovering. Okay, on to storyness: I've got a turning point coming up in the next chapter. So I need to know - do you want to bawl your eyes out or give Rose and The Doctor a happily ever after? Personally, I like a good cry. But that's just me. And I also love me some happy Doctor - so let me know. AKA Review!**

Jackie watches Rose watch The Doctor leave. She wishes that she still hated the man. It was easier then. Slap him silly and try to keep him in line. The door to the blue box closes and the whooshing sound associated with his appearances and disappearances fills the room for a moment and then fades.

She steps forward to take Roses hand. In a few moments, perhaps she'll make some tea. She looks at Rose's downcast face. She isn't crying, but she might as well be. A mum knows these things. Yes, tea. That's exactly what she needs.

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The Doctor visits her once a week, her time. Always on Sunday. He used to refuse to land the TARDIS on Sundays. He had always believed that nothing exciting had ever happened on a Sunday. All other days of the week were fair game. When Rose had lived on the TARDIS, she had lived years without experiencing a single Sunday.

Now Sundays are his favorite day.

For him it is longer between visits. A month, maybe two. He is drawing out the span of her life like chocolate. He tries to ignore the fact that she is withering before his eyes, instead savoring the moments so that she will be bright, shining and alive to him longer. He believes in her. He believes in Sundays.

When the Doctor is captured on the planet Kusshko and tortured for arguing against slaving a less dominant species -the Fernons, a peaceful race - on the planet . What keeps him alive is that he believes in her belief that he will be coming to see her on Sunday to force himself to fight his way back to the. He has saved the Fernons, all one thousand and twelve souls.

When he crash lands around the corner from the Powell Estates, the TARDIS sparking and howling, it is the first Sunday he has spent with Rose in a year his time.

He wishes later that he had been conscious for more of it.

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Rose is walking home from the market when she hears it. It is the sound of the TARDIS in torment and it terrifies her. She drops her groceries in the middle of the street and runs. Eggs and milk drip into the gutter.

When she arrives at the TARDIS door, her hands tremble as she lifts the key from around her neck where it hangs. It is fiery to the touch. Holding it with the edges of her jumper she turns the key in the lock. Unlike days gone by when opening the door of the blue police box had brought anticipation of adventures to come, now as the door swings open a cold sense of dread settles in her gut.

She smells blood and electricity in the air. There is a pressure in her mind that she recognizes as the TARDIS warning her of danger.

"Doctor!" She calls. Her voice shakes, echoing throughout the smokey control room.

The sonic screw driver rolls across the control room floor, falling beneath a sparking grate, betraying the Doctors prone position on the floor.

"My Rose." His mouth is open and bloody as he gasps out her name, there is panic in his eyes. "Why aren't you glowing? You glowed once. You are beautiful when you glow, Rose. But we almost had an explosion, we should get that in order." He giggles a bit, then coughs blood splatters her face but Rose doesn't feel it. She sees him injured and her brain is misfiring.

The Doctor continues his rambling, "Ruff, ruff, bad dog. Only you were the Bad Wolf. To wolves say "Ruff, Ruff", Rose? I can't remember. Why can't I remember? Am I a hologram? Are you? You're going to leave me." Tears are pouring down her face. "Why can't you stay?"

She is choking out _"I'm_ sorry."'sand _"I don't want to go."_ 's and he is reaching a hand out to touch her face- as she leans into his touch everything happens at once. He falls unconcious, his hand drops to the floor, the TARDIS sparks around them, and she sees the blood soaking the TARDIS's floor in a sickly flood of red.

She has only seen that much blood once in her life before, the woman it had belonged to had not survived long enough for Rose to find out her name. She wants to scream. Instead she bites her tongue to hold the scream inside and goes to work saving her Doctor. She pulls her jumper over her head, her undershirt no protection from the sparks in the air. Fashioning a quick tourniquet around his rapidly bleeding arm. She looks at her wrinkled hands for a moment. They don't look very strong, but she bends down anyway, grabbing the Doctor under his arms pits and pulling.

She has never missed her youth more than at this moment, her back on fire as she drags him across the floor of the TARDIS. There is another flair within her mind - the TARDIS is screaming, she can hear it - she can feel the cries of the tortured TARDIS rippling down her skin like currents of boiling water but Rose keeps moving because she knows if there is one thing in her life that she's meant to do it is too always protect this man.

At that moment the corridor disappears leaving a solid wall in its place. The TARDIS was shutting down all the outside rooms, removing them from existence to attempt to repair itself. They needed to get out, Rose knew, right then. They only have moments left. No one has ever been inside a TARDIS during its healing process. She didn't know what would happen, but she assumed it wouldn't be anything good.

And she had run out of strength. Her was Doctor in her arms and the light of the TARDIS coming at her and it looked so... _familiar_. She kneels at the Doctors side, and whispers in his ear, "Help me, Doctor."

There is no sonic screw driver to give him. Now all she can do is hope. And, with all the strength left in her fragile body, try to lift him from the ground and pull.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Impossible Dreams**

******A/N: Thanks for all the well wishes for my family. I really appreciate all the supportive reviews I've recieved, both for my family and for "Breakable". The majority of my ideas for this chapter are inspired by "The Journal Of Impossible Things". I wanted to see what the Doctor had written about Rose in the journal so I went on a qwest to find out. Its really quite beautiful and I think all Rose/the Doctor shippers out there will love it. So, seriously. Check it out if you want it word for word! Reviews make my fingers type super fast!**

_"Are you anything akin to me, do you think, Jane?"_

_I could risk no sort of answer by this time; my heart was full._

_"Because," he said, "I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you — especially when you are near to me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land, come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapped; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly."_

_ - Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte_

A single step can change the world.

It takes far more steps for Rose to pull the Doctor out of the TARDIS. Of course, the most important step is the last. She takes the last step, her breath coming in gasping puffs. There is panic lighting her eyes. Her foot catches. Walking backwards is never wise at the best of times - especially when you are as jeopardy friendly as Rose - but she isn't thinking of that when she exits the blue police box.

Her head hits the cobblestones on the ground behind her and the limp weight of the Doctor hits her chest as he collapses on top of her and she doesn't think anything anymore. There is only a brush of air against her cheek as the TARDIS door closes itself... and darkness.

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He doesn't want to go.

He doesn't want to go.

In the delirium brought on by burns and blood loss, that thought is anchored to his mind.

He dreams he is in a garden. There is an ocean of roses. Everywhere around him only roses. But he's tormented because doesn't need a thousand roses. Only the perfect one. The perfect rose.

He searches for hours or minutes or years. Not knowing the passage of time should bother him, he thinks. But he worries only about his rose.

These roses around him are lovely. But he plucks them and discards them, because they are not his rose. There is a voice behind him, but he doesn't turn around.

"What are you looking for?"

He thinks the voice is familiar but he doesn't turn.

"My rose."

"Your Rose is burning." The words are said lightly, her voice is delicate.

He doesn't turn. "Hmm?" He's distracted, there is a rose just out of reach, a beautiful rose with yellow-pink petals that call to him in the most extraordinary way.

"Don't worry. Your Rose has burned before."

As he plucks the yellow-pink rose from its place in the garden he looks at the woman who has spoken to him. She is blonde, and she is extraordinary and he _knows her._ And she is leaving.

"Wait!"

She turns and smiles at him. She is wearing the most extraordinary clothes. A pink skirt dances around her feet, heels make her taller. Her face is ageless. She could be 19, or 100 - her time blurs before his eyes. She is a thousand miles away. She is right next to him.

He is desperate. He calls to her, "Can you help me find my rose?"

She steps up to him, wordless, and closes his fingers tighter around the yellow-pink rose in his hand. She moves to walk away, and pauses for a moment. Her blonde hair brushes against his lips as she places a kiss upon his cheek.

He stares at her in wonder as a golden glow lights up her eyes. She is walking away from him, and suddenly all he knows is that he cannot let her go. A word reverberates in his mind. A word he knows is true. Soul mate. Soul mate. _She is my soul._

"Wait!" he calls. She doesn't stop. He moves to chase her, but his feet tangle in the rose bushes around him and will not let him go. His hearts fracture.

She is gone and the fractures break open.

He looks at the rose he holds in his hand. It is only then that he realizes that he has pricked his fingers on the thorns in he search for the perfect rose. He is bleeding. He is bleeding gold.

He doesn't want to go. He holds tighter to the rose in his burning fingers.

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It is Sunday morning. The Doctor's new favorite day. Half of London is at home sleeping in, a quarter of London is at church, and another quarter of London is watching the telly in their jim-jams. Nothing happens on Sundays.

No one walks by. No one sees the man and woman collapsed on the ground or the man slowly starting to burn golden beside her.

Gravity had forced him to roll off to the side of her body, and he lies on his face, his fingers splayed on top of hers. Those same fingers hold tight suddenly. And then he ignites. There on the ground in the middle of London, holding his Rose, the Doctor burns. There is no one to pull Rose to safety because no one sees.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

I love this place  
But it's haunted without you  
My tired heart  
Is beating so slow  
Our hearts sing less  
Than we wanted, we wanted

... It is not said, I always know.  
- Amanda Seifried, Little House

**A/N: I'm seriously touched by all the reviews! I'm not telling which route I'm going happy or sad just yet but it shouldn't be too much longer until the end of the story. I may follow through with the suggestion of one reviewer to do two different endings. We shall see! Thanks for reading, and again reviews are my addiction keep them coming! **

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Regenerating while unconscious is very disconcerting. The Doctor wakes up on the cold ground, his new face pressed to the stones. His first thought upon awakening is that his new limbs are too long for the clothes he wears. His toes press uncomfortably into the sides of his Chuck Taylors in protest. In the next moment he forgets about his discomfort completely.

There are moments in your life that you will never forget. There are beautiful moments and then there are moments like these. The moment your world is torn down around you in a single heart wrenching second.

Rose is laying on the ground next to him. _Rose. Rose. No. Rose. Wake up. Rose._ His head fills with a buzzing noise he cannot decipher. His hearts stop. His respiratory bypass system stops. In that moment everything stops. The way a rollercoaster will click, clack, click to the very peak of its framework before plummeting towards the ground.

Rose is laying on the ground next to him. The Doctor finds himself free-falling. There is blood surrounding her head and soaking her silvering hair in a macabre halo. In horror the Doctor reaches out mentally, pressing his new fingertips to her temples. Trying to find her.

But there is nothing left to find. Only darkness and the echo of a light that was. _Rose, wake up. Just sleeping. You promised me forever._

He takes her hand, and drops it just as quickly. There are scorch marks on her fingers. He has burned her soul out of her body with the force of his regeneration. He presses his fingers too her beloved face once more.

The Doctor does not move. He cannot stop touching her face. Her eyes are open and do not see him. He cannot look away from her. From the most beautiful alien, human, woman, girl he has ever seen. He has destroyed her. This new, new, new Doctor walks with death as his companion. He wonders what kind of man he will be without her by his side. Guilt, loss and regret swallow him whole.

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There was a night about a week after Rose dropped the tea-cup. The Doctor took her back to New Earth and nothing went wrong. They were in a kind of relationship limbo, more than they had been but less than they could be.

She swept out of the TARDIS when they landed, inhaling the scent of apple grass so deeply he thought her lungs might burst. She spun around laughing to face him, a tongue to teeth grin illuminating her face. A ship careened by overhead, the wind tousling her hair. Neither of them noticed.

Once she had glowed like the sun, that night it seemed the moonlight from overhead had found its way inside of her. "Doctor," she said, holding out her hand to him, "Doctor, come dance with me."

There was no music, but he stepped through the doorway of the TARDIS and into her arms.

"Do you know?" He whispered, as they held their bodies close together in the darkness. "Of course I do, Doctor. I always know."

In a gesture that would soon become familiar to both of them he lifted his fingers to hover her temples and asked her if she would be his. Her hands slipped up over his arms, over his bony wrists and pressed them against her skin. His eyes widened at her complete trust in him.

That night bathed in the moonlight of New Earth, Rose Tyler an extraordinarily human girl, took his hands and guided him home. He hadn't been truly alone since.

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The Doctor gathers Rose in his arms and falls back against the wall of the injured TARDIS, hearing the song emanating from behind her closed doors. She is keening a song of pain. Of loss. _Rose._

The Doctor weeps. If anyone were listening, they might hear him calling her name.

He does not see the golden spark ignite in the fixed staring eyes of the woman he mourns. He just rocks her, back and forth, the way one might to comfort a child.

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In moments of great power someone always has to make a choice. A prince fighting a dragon to get to a sleeping princess. The Huntsmen choosing to bring the evil Queen the heart of a deer instead of killing Snow White. Sharing your last wedge of cheese with an old woman on a journey. Running towards an open door with a strange man and the potential for adventures inside.

These are the choices upon which the axis of time turns. The large, the small, and the inconceivable.

The Bad Wolf burns brightly once more and a choice made outside of time comes into being.

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	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: This chapter is very inspired by Angel, in case you can't tell. I've always loved Fred and Wesley. They were my first tormented supernatural romance and I love them for it. Again thank you for the awesome reviews! I live for them, and they inspire me every time I sit down to write._

Wesley: You dozed off. Was I making too much noise?  
Fred: Not enough. I need noise to keep me here.

- A Hole In The World, Angel

Harmony: The girl of your dreams loved you. That's more than most people get.

Wesley: I know. But it's not enough.

- Shells, Angel

Chapter Five: A Hole In Time

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_**I was at home. No, I wasn't, I was in the Tardis, and there was this light. I can't remember anything else...**_

Standing in the doorway of the TARDIS she see's all of time. But she focuses on one timeline more than others.

_Rose?_

_**Yes, Doctor? **_

_I'm coming to get you._

There is a moment that spins and curves like the funnels you drop coins into at museums and shopping malls. Wishing wells. The coin goes into the slot and then spins round and round until it hangs suspended for a moment at the mouth of the hole. It waits there, spinning and you hold your breath because you think that maybe it could keep spinning forever. Maybe it could grant your wish. But eventually, it drops into darkness because it has too. Because of the laws of gravity. You inhale because of the laws of your body. Only this moment is controled by the laws of time, and something beyond laws. Because due to the very construct of what a wish is, you cannot place the barrier of laws upon them... But because of the lawless nature of a wish there is nothing to guarantee that they will come true either.

_Now Rose, you're not going to bring about the end of the world. Are you?_

This is the moment when the seventy year old soul of Rose Tyler is torn out of time to step into the body of her younger self. As the doors of the TARDIS swing open before her glowing, golden eyes to show her first Doctor standing in the middle of satellite Five nothing has ever made more sense to her in her life.

If she didn't have all of time bouncing around in her head she might laugh at the Doctor's lack of knowledge of just how far she actually traveled to save him.

_**But look at it.**_  
_What's it doing?_  
_**It's the sunlight, that's all it wants.**_

She had always wondered what had happened on this day. The Doctor had never told her and she had never looked for these moments in his mind. Perhaps it was always meant to happen that way, she wasn't supposed to know what was going to happen in her future until it happened to her, after all. When he kissed her, she poured her soul into it - knowing that for him this would be their first kiss, knowing that this would be her only time to kiss him in this body, wondering if it would be their last or if her plan would work after all.

Bad Wolf, a message to guide her back to this moment in time. Another message is still waiting too be received. She believes that the Doctor will hear it, because it is out of the hands of time now and is all up to him. She believes in him, but she wonders, how very scared she is.

_**The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know he showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away...**_

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It's a quiet message this time. Perhaps that's why he doesn't hear it or see it. Or perhaps it is because it's because he doesn't see anything but her.

Jackie finds them. Old tottering Jackie finds him clutching her daughter in his arms and lifts her hands to her mouth in horror as she sees the blood staining her childs hair and the hopelessness in the Doctor's eyes, eyes that have run out of tears. She knows him without him telling her who he is from the way he is touching her daughter. From the way he is broken.

**'Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor and maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe? **

In the single functioning corner of his mind he prays for her to slap him. He wants it, he needs it, like some might crave absolution. So when she slowly drops down to the ground next to him, he is ready to embrace every second of the blow he knows is coming. He keeps his eyes open as she looks into them so that the mother who just lost her child can see every ounce of his guilt.

And she does deal him a blow. The blow of her frail arms wrapping around both him and Rose's limp body. The blow of her not blaming him. It turns out he has not run out of tears after all.

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Rose is on one side of a wall made of time. In a burst of golden sparks she has led her mum to find the Doctor. She clings to the wall, wishing she could touch him. Wishing she could call out to him. But all she can do is whisper. Her time is running out.

She presses against the wall - she imagines that she can feel him against her - and says again, "Doctor, help me."

This time he hears her.

_I'm here! It's me! Oh my god! Where are you?_  
_**I'm just towing you home.**_

xxxxxxx

It's on Jackie's top. The Doctor finally sees it. The words emblazoned in hot pink on a light blue track suit meant for a far younger woman, but strangely perfect for the mother on the ground next to him.

Bad Wolf.

_**I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here... **_

He hears her.

_**I want you safe. My Doctor.**_


	6. Chapter 6

I'm miles from where you are,  
I lay down on the cold ground  
I, I pray that something picks me up  
And sets me down in your warm arms

After I have travelled so far  
We'd set the fire to the third bar

- Snow Patrol

**A/N: I don't know why but his was a more frustrating chapter for me too produce (serious writers block) so I really hope you like it. I love reviews and constructive criticism!**

**Chapter 6: Tearing Down the Walls**

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She has been pounding her fists against the wall again. Her hands become bloody and then heal in cycles of seconds.

She stops after a while.

Just watches the scene play out.

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Rose's body has been passed from the Doctor's arms to Jackie's. He is standing still, new, new new eyes wide and wild as he stares at her body. Jackie is stroking her daughters hair and staring past him at the alley wall.

He runs his hands through his hair harshly, gripping it for a moment before letting go. How to save her. How to save her. How... His toes are still pinched and he can't think. He kicks them off quickly, standing there on the street barefoot and crazy eyed.

"Maybe... Perhaps..." He says.

He drops to his knees again before Jackie, before the body of the only person he has truly believed in since he held the fate of Gallifrey in his hands and made a choice.

"I need you too let her go, Jackie." The hand in Rose's hair stills, and Jackie's eyes close.

"What are you going to do, Doctor?"

"I promised you I would bring her back to you. I'm going to try to do it one more time."

"It's dangerous?" She knows the answer before she asks the question.

His eyes are set and determined. "Yes." The risks of him getting lost, going mad even, are very high.

"Alright then. 'ow can I help?"

"Just don't touch us 'til after." She looks frustrated for a moment, and the Doctor sympathizes. One of the hardest things to do is nothing at all.

Jackie looks at Rose, she looks at the peaceful face and the hair she's been stroking, matted with blood. She lets herself hope.

There is something symbolic about Jackie releasing Rose's body to his care, but he can't bring himself to ponder it closely. His back is against the TARDIS again, it is awkward supporting Rose's weight against his chest but he manages. He looks again at 'Bad Wolf' emblazoned across Jackie's chest.

"I'm coming, Rose." It is a whisper. He angles himself so that his forehead is pressing against hers and his hands are at her temples once more. And then he forces his way into the darkness of her empty mind.

He sees pictures of her life flashing by, but it is only the left over electrical synapses firing at his presence. There is no emotion connected to the images. There is pain in the lack of her presence in the memories. It is as if someone took a painting of sky and stars and beauty and drenched it in paint thinner. Only the canvas remains.

He pushes past the memories, looking for any kind of spark that will tell him where to find her.

And then he finds a spark. It is so weak he would have missed it but it flares at his presence. His takes it in his hands and stokes it. He blows on it gently, the gift of air from his lungs.

The spark becomes a fire, and the Doctor is consumed.

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Rose has watched him hold her. Watched him connect with what is left of her human mind. The man and woman are still on the ground for long moments. There is the sound of her Mum weeping in the background.

When he finds her, she doesn't see the alley anymore. Instead her vision is coated in gold and he stands out in silhouette. And she feels so warm. He is standing there next to her not seeing her. So she calls to him. When he takes her in his arms, she is full of hope and belief that everything will be okay. Then he exhales.

It should feel like warmth, or air, or that damn glass wall shattering, but it doesn't.

Instead Rose thinks of before, before the Doctor, the time that Jimmy Stone and his mates put explosives in tiny glass paint bottles. She had been less than sober at the time and while she had ignored Jimmy and the rest of the idiots for her cigarettes, the little bottles had fascinated her. Some of them sprayed paint from the bottle to the ceiling of the garage they were in. Some were different, they exploded from the inside out. Imploded, really. That is what is happening to Rose now. There is an explosion inside of her, and it is ripping her apart, separating her pieces and throwing them out, out, out until she isn't thinking of Jimmy Stone, or her Mum, or even the Doctor... Or anything at all.

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Jackie stands, watching the Doctor and Rose. Praying, hoping, bargaining, wishing, barely breathing, weeping. A little of everything.

Then Rose's hand moves, Jackie's eyes light up and she is about to run forward when Rose begins to convulse. The bodies of the Doctor and Rose are ripped apart with the force of Rose's convulsions.

Jackie has backed away, against the cold stone of the far wall of the alley, she watches in horror. She wants to run forward, to protect her child but the Doctor's warning echoes in her mind and she holds herself still.

When fire starts to pour from Rose's body she is glad she listened.


	7. Chapter 7

You think that I nearly lost you  
When the doctors tried to take you away.  
But like the night you took my hand beside the fire  
Thirty years ago to this day  
You swore you'd be here 'til we decide that it's our time  
Well it's not time, you've never quit in all your life.  
So just take my hand, you know that I'll never leave your side.  
You're the love of my life, you know that I'll never leave your side.

- The Gambler, by Fun.

A/N: I'm sorry for how short this is but it feels like I want syrup for my pancakes and I'm having to go drain a maple tree to get it rather than just going to the grocery store. Writers block sucks! But we are getting close to the end and the plot bunny isn't going to let me go anytime soon! Keep reviewing please - I need them for fuel :)

**Chapter Seven: Open Your Eyes**

When Rose was a little girl hiding under bed covers at Shireen's house sometimes she would turn on a flash light and stare into it. When she turned it off, she could still see the light. Burned into her eyes.

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The Doctor moves to take a step towards, Rose. His beautiful Rose, convulsing on the ground and throwing light from every pore of her body. It is the most violent regeneration he has ever seen and he is not sure she will survive it. At the last second he redirects and wraps his arms around Jackie to keep her from going to her daughter.

He is aware up until the very last moment that he can see this face, Rose's first face, through the golden streaming light. When she is consumed he closes his eyes. Because that Rose, his pink and yellow girl is gone, and it is like death to him because he will miss that face like nothing else.

Jackie is hanging on to him, frail wrists and brittle skin asking him, begging him to tell her what to do. He doesn't believe in God. But under his breath he says to Jackie, "Pray." Because he cannot do that for Rose himself. Someone should be praying.

He doesn't notice how loud everything is until the sound stops. His head fills with cotton wool, and he doesn't know if it is because of his own regeneration or because he is terrified. His arms around Jackie go loose as he prepares to step forward. Terrified he decides. He is terrified. He can't move.

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Blinded by the need to know if her daughter is alive Jackie breaks from the Doctors grip and runs towards Rose's fallen body. Maybe she should have noticed the girl on the ground had long black hair that spilled around her body and onto the ground, the girl on the ground was so slim that her shoulder blades pressed backwards into the sweatshirt she wore-kittens playing with a ball of yarn - like broken wings. She would have noticed that her almost sixty-seven year old daughter, looks like a girl of 24.

Or perhaps she did notice. Perhaps the only thing she cared about was that her daughter was alive and in her arms and she knew it was her daughter _**because it was her daughter**_ and the rest of the facts could go to hell. Because where before there was only stillness under her fingers she felt Rose's pulse steady and reassuring. That was all that mattered.

And then Rose's eyelashes flutter, a whisper against pale skin and freckles. The Doctor is at their side in an instant. His new face is the first thing her new eyes have ever seen. She doesn't say anything, she just held out her hands. And it is like birth to him, because she is touching him and she is alive.

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	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7

**A/N: This chapter came to me a little easier, I hope you enjoy it. I really liked writing it and playing with dialogue a little more than I have in previous chapters. If anyone has any advise for an American trying to write British characters I would be happy to use it. Thank you for your reviews on the previous chapters! Keep them coming :) Thank you.**

_Your eyes are full  
Full of the future of us  
The air changes as you look across  
At me in that wondering way  
It is as if I knew you before we spoke  
Do our hearts know something we don't?  
Conspiring, converging without giving us any sa  
You, sing me to sleep  
Talk down my walls  
Look through my windows as I wait  
You could be the thief  
I give the key to...  
You're breaking into my heart  
And I'm letting you._

_- The Thief, Brooke Fraser_

The Doctor wasn't kidding about how odd it felt to have new teeth. Rose stands, still a little shakily, in front of the mirror in the Wardrobe Room of the TARDIS. She passes her tongue over each tooth over and over again. Her mouth tastes like tea.

Jackie and the Doctor took her into the Powell Estate while the Tardis recovered. While the Doctor raided the refrigerator (taking one bite of each bit of food he could find before discarding it all for fish sticks and custard) her Mum had been pushing cup after cup into her hands and muttering about "Tanins" and "If it's good enough for your Doctor, it ought to be good enough for you, bloody miss!"

She is too tall for her jeans and jumper and so slim that the elastic waist band jeans keep slipping down her hips. She wouldn't be filling out her t-shirts in the same way that she had before. Of course what she had now was a lot perkier than she had been as an almost seventy year old woman, so she wasn't complaining.

She forces herself to thumb through the clothing that the TARDIS has to offer. She hears the Doctor moving around in the other side of the wardrobe. He hasn't been new to her since she was twenty years old. Then there is another thought and it's so absolutely overwhelming that she freezes momentarily. She has never been new to him. She has only been human to him. Now she is something else, someone else and she is scared he will look at her and see a stranger.

The TARDIS senses her thoughts and a pale blue sun dress presses lightly into her hand, the way a puppy might tentatively press his nose into the hand of her human. The fabric is silky under her finger tips and the skirt is cut short enough and full enough to be able to run in with ease.

Rose's kitten covered jumper, elastic waistband jeans, white trainers and the rest of her clothes hit the floor. For a moment she is only wearing the TARDIS key chain. She looks at the mirror again and realizes, abstractly, that she is pretty. Then the blue dress slips over her head, she slips into a pair of boy short underwear and toes into yellow ankle boots with fringe down the side.

When she sits down to zip up the boots she stays sitting. Her head rests in her hands and she doesn't feel like she was ever a deity that controled all of time. She doesn't own the confidence of the teenager she was when she first stepped inside the TARDIS, she doesn't have the wisdom of the woman that she grew up to become. She understands now why the Doctor considers regeneration a kind of death. There is a part of her that existed once and is gone now. Like the moment between sleep and waking, a moment of emptiness, of not knowing who you are. Floating.

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The Doctor struts in, a picture of tweed and suspenders. He bounces on the balls of his feet. He calls out to Rose, joking about how they never did get to go to Barcelona and maybe that's where they should go next.

He sees her sitting there, her head bowed under dark hair and a tear trickling out from between the fingers pressed to her face to splatter on the grating of the TARDIS floor. His hands fidget, tweaking at his new suspenders lightly before running through his hair.

Slowly he steps towards Rose, kneeling in front of her as she swipes her hands over her face, trying to erase the tear tracks from her face but only smudging them instead.

"Sorry." She whispers. She clears her throat when her voice comes out softer and with a more delicate accent than she's used to. Her eyebrows pinch in consternation, she shakes her head and is suddenly wearing a smile so bright that it cannot be real.

"I'm sorry." She says again. "Oy. This is everything I 'ave ever wanted, isn't it? More time with you. We can travel again... And I'm a bloody mess."

"I almost lost you, Rose." He clears his throat. "I almost lost you but I didn't. And that's... Well that's fantastic, isn't it?"

He smiles at her, and it's awkward in a new way. Just a bit too tilted. Not quite wide enough. But she feels something flutter inside of her, the fluttering she has always felt when her Doctor smiles and she is reassured.

"You might have a new face, and new hands, and a new heart but you are my Rose. Now I can do for you something you have done for me for so long."

She looks up at him with questions in her eyes.

"I can know who you are even when you don't. But Rose, it goes two ways. I decided you keep you once and you left to save me. Save me again. Stay. Please, and I'll always know who you are. I always have, haven't I? From the very first time I took your hand."

His actions match his words and his hand grasps hers, and a wave of golden sparks erupt over her skin to spiral up her arm in swirling Galifreyan symbols. The sparks cling to their skin where they touch. They stare, mute with surprise.

The Doctor reaches forward with his other hand to touch the symbols that have appeared, eyes wide.

"They say..." He starts to say, but Rose cuts him off.

"They say Bad Wolf,"

The Doctor stares at her with dark, serious eyes. She speaks, the eyes that meet his flecked with gold and alight with joy. "They say Daughter of Time and the Tardis. They say Rose. They say the Doctor's wife. They say I am yours and that you are mine. They say who I am and who I always will be."

Rose smiles, squeezes his hand tightly before releasing it. Gold clings to her skin for a moment before fading, as she stands walks across the wardrobe and picks up a bit of fabric. He follows her. Watches dark hair fall across her face as she contemplates the thing in her hands.

She stands close to him, looks up through dark lashes, the tears from earlier making her eyes shine. Her hands come up around his neck and she loops the bow tie around his neck. She smiles again and he sees their past and their future.

"Thought you needed an extra bit. Wasn't quite right before, was it?"

"No. No, it wasn't." He says as she adjusts his collar.

He takes both of her hands.

"This is perfect."

Her skin illuminates once more.

"And bow ties are cool."

She grins and says, "Very sexy too."

He raises an eyebrow at her, "This new you is rather cheeky, isn't it?"

She laughs. "Are you complaining?"

"Not at all..." His eyebrows knit together. His lips form words that are familiar to him because they are always on the tip of his tongue when he is near Rose and always so hard to say. But this is important. This is the first time with these lips. The first time she will hear them with these ears.

"I love you, Rose Tyler." He is wrong. It's not hard to say. He feels lighter with every word.

"Never doubted it for a minute, my Doctor." The Galifreyan circles have traveled even higher, twisting over her shoulders, tracing the skin of her jawline. His traces a phrase with a fingertip.

_The Doctor's Wife._

"Quite right too."

And it is.

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	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: In Memoriam

_Before the time that you go_  
_There is something you should know_  
_You will always be in me_  
_You are never far from me_  
_- Never Far From Me, John Garrison_

**A/N: This chapter actually started out as a single paragraph in the epilogue. It grew a little. Enjoy! Only the epilogue is left to go and it's already written, I just want to re-read it a few times and obsess about it before I post.**

After Rose's first regeneration they hadn't left the Powell estates immediately. They lingered there for a few years. Rose had so much time. So, so much time ahead. But Jackie didn't. So they stayed. The Doctor examined Rose. The Doctor tinkered with the TARDIS. Jackie and Rose talked. The Doctor didn't leave Rose again. It was all very domestic.

Rose and Jackie talked like they were trying to fill up all the years Rose had left with those words until they overflowed with them. They fought, and later Rose felt that was one of the things she would miss the most about her mum. The feeling of being Jackie Tyler's daughter was strongly associated with the feeling being given an opinion that you were meant to accept right then, right there. But that opinion was always given with love generating the words. Rose never felt more like a daughter than when she was being told what to do by her mother.

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Over the next eight years Jackie got older and Rose looked into her face and heard an echo of the Doctor's worlds in her ear, "Humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone you... " She now knew only a fraction of the pain the Doctor had felt watching her age as his own timeline stood still. It left her recoiling from blows that just kept coming. It left her numb, waiting for the pain to hit.

The neighbors thought that she was Jackie's granddaughter. They called her Jane and the Doctor John - they asked how her mum was. They asked how Rose Tyler was. They asked her that and she never knew how to answer. So, she put on a smile and pretended she knew what to say.

Jackie got older. Jackie got sick. Rose lived in the arm-chair by Jackie's hospital bed for the last six months. The Doctor stopped tinkering on the TARDIS and stayed by Rose's side.

He held her hand and she held Jackie's.

Jackie told the Doctor to take care of Rose, and then she thanked him for loving her daughter. And then she slapped him, lightly, just to make sure he knew it was Jackie Tyler talking and as long as she could lift her arm she was still in charge.

The Doctor promises to do as she asks. He looks away, running his fingers through his hair and says, "I wouldn't mind if the history books said Jackie Tyler was my mother in law." He cleared his throat, "Nah, I'd be proud, wouldn't I?"

She took his hand and squeezed.

Rose watched from her chair. A tear trickled down her cheek and over lips that were curved into a small sad smile.

Jackie's eyes met Rose's from the bed and mouthed the words, "I love you."

Rose fell asleep in the chair. The Doctor went to the cafeteria and got a custard that he didn't eat. Rose woke up the buzz of the heart monitor and the sound of a nurse calling a code.

Jackie Tyler was gone.

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Rose learns how the world changes when someone dies. She learns how people bring food to your home like if they can cover up your pain with tuna casserole. She also learns that the loss of appetite and death are connected. She finds that to be very ironic.

She hides under her blankets and sleeps too much. Then the nightmares start and she doesn't sleep at all.

Rose doesn't pack up her mum's home. It is hers, it was left to her in Jackie's will. She leaves it untouched. She'll come back to visit. To make tea out of the kettle that Jackie always used. To remember. So that she will never forget who Jackie Tyler was.

A week after the funeral Rose reaches out to the Doctor and takes his hand. They walk into the TARDIS together.

When he asks where she wants to go she says, "Forwards."

The sound of the universe fills their ears.


	10. Chapter 10

Epliogue

**Authors note is at the bottom, as it contains spoilers for this chapter.**

_The wonder of it all  
The wonder that I made  
I am here to stay_

I am here to stay

Stay.

_- Little House, Amanda Seyfried_

xxxxxxx

**Two Hundred and Twelve Years Later**

**14,243 years in the future. Planet Designation 2577-apple-23, Market Of Dreams**

Rose stands in a market place and she is not Rose Tyler. Years back they assisted Unit with a mission and false records were created for the Doctor and Rose. They asked that their names be listed as Rose and James Legend. That is what she goes by now. Rose Legend.

In that same mission, Rose died and regenerated for the second time.

The woman standing in the middle of an alien planet, completely at ease, is short. Clocking in at an unspectacular five feet, she has red, wavy hair cut in a posh pixie cut; her skin is tan -if you look closely you might think it is embedded with gold flecks- and her muscles are lean and built for running, climbing, fleeing. She wears a black tank top and cargo pants. A silver key on a chain that hangs low between her breasts. Jackie wouldn't recognize her.

_Miss you, Mum. _She thinks with a sigh. Rose inhales her surroundings into her and it is a salve that runs over her in waves. Healing her.

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The sights (vendors waving hands and gesturing at overpriced bobbles), sounds (steam erupting from grates in giant wheezing puffs, the clomp blomp bomp bomp of an alien horse-type-creature on the metallic ground, the yelling of a mother to her child) and smells (saffron, armadillo bile soaking air that is thick with humidity) of the market place draw her in, she slips into the mess of haggling, bustling people. She grins at a scaly green man three times her hight and half her head size, he grins back and shows hooked yellow teeth. Rose merely waves a bit a moves on.

A familiar hand catches hers, gold sparks ignite and spill from their skin where they touch, and she can't help but smile up at the tall, floppy haired man beside her. She is whole.

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When Rose was thirty-five years old they had walked back to the TARDIS after visiting a planet that was strangely lacking in mishaps.

Rose had been distracted, waiting for an angry mob to appear from somewhere or huge alien bugs to descend upon them. She had started walking backwards to examin the skyline for angry puppet creatures and ended up falling into a lake. She would later insist on it was a very tricky puddle.

She emerged sputtering, soaked and irritated. The Doctor made the mistake of saying she looked like a wet dog. She marched back to the TARDIS in a sulk. He backtracked by saying she looked like a drowned kitten. Because kittens are brilliant! And cute. And they look so grumpy when they trip and fall into a lake.

She stalked away. He rolled his eyes and followed her towards the TARDIS. His long legs matched her stride easily which only frustrated her more. She went from stalking to stomping and the knowing that she was being immature just made her sulk harder.

"Rose." She ignored him. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Her wet trainers squeaked. TARDIS getting closer. Left foot. Stalk, stalk, stalk. She muttered under her breath and picked a leaf from her stringy wet hair.

The Doctor stops her when they make it inside the TARDIS.

"Rose Tyler, you are being silly." She opens her mouth and her eyes start to squint. His own on coming storm. He takes her hand and holds it.

He stutters a bit. "And you are a silly girl. In the best way. I love that you look like a drowned kitten, don't I? You look cute."

She's grumpy enough to not let his words melt her. And then he pulls her hand to his mouth and kisses the inside of her wrist, his lips moving up her arm. Tickling. Her face cracks into a smile and his eyes twinkle back at her. But it's not until he stops kissing her arm to swirl his tongue over his lips and comment on the algae content of the lake water that she breaks down completely. Laughter rocks her body, and he looks at her in delighted wonder.

"I love you, Rose Tyler."

A smile grows wide on her face and her tongue presses against her teeth as she hiccups out a few more giggles. Her eyes glow, and if they water a bit she blames it on the laughter.

She touches his face. "I know."

That is the second time the Doctor told Rose that he loved her.

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Standing in the Market of Dreams Rose's smile is the same as it was the first time the Doctor saw it grace her face. Wide, innocent and joyful. He thinks that is very cool. It's also quite sexy, and he twirls his tie a bit with his right hand in a repressed sort of way. The familiar gesture makes Rose's eyes sparkle with both passion and acknowledgement.

The TARDIS is sitting in the distance but they aren't heading in that direction, they head instead in the direction of whatever wild adventure was to be found on this planet. Later, they will run back to the TARDIS breathing too fast, and laughing too hard - the Doctor will still take Rose's hand in his and kiss up from her wrist to her elbow just to make her laugh harder. That hasn't changed.

But something else has. He isn't alone anymore, and he isn't waiting to lose Rose. He decides to keep her, and time and fate have conspired together to let him.

The Doctor tells his Rose he loves her, and neither of them have any idea how many times he has said it before. It is too many times to count.

The words on Rose's skin tell a story.

They say that they will run together. They are the stuff of legend.

They are unbreakable.

A/N: This is it folks. Completing this story has been a goal of mine. originally this story was going to be two chapters long and have a strict "Rose bites the Dust" policy. That's not quite how it turned out. I'm glad it didn't, I really enjoyed writing this and love how the plot bunny took over. Not to mention the appearance of the 11th Doctor. That surprised me even while I was writing it.

I have mentioned before that I have thought of giving this story an alternate ending, I'm still planning on doing so. I just need to come up with a concept. Or rather, I have too many concepts and need to decide which one I'm going to use. I am also debating whether to pursue writing a sequel to this story. If the plot bunny bites I might just have too!

I would like to give a shout out to all of you reviewers! You are amazing, without you guys cheering me on I would not have finished this story nearly as quickly as I have. Thank you.

Booksaremyvideogames, I think you will appreciate this chapter. It was written before your review so I got a kick out of knowing this was coming.

A special nod to Valerie for her words of encouragement and willingness to talk out plot ideas.


	11. Alternate Ending

A/N: Here is that alternate ending I promised! Hope you enjoy :)

Alternate ending:

Sleep tight, I'm not afraid  
The ones that we love are here with me  
Lay away a place for me  
Cause as soon as I'm done I'll be on my way  
To live eternally.

- Avenged Sevenfold

There is a woman who lives at the rest home who tells the most amazing stories. She is bright and happy and chats with the other residents as Maggie, a twenty-five year old orderly, watches. She thinks that perhaps growing old won't be so bad if she turns out like this woman. This Rose Tyler.

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Rose had poked old Mr. Franklin in the chest with her cane when he tried to pinch Maggie's bum while she was passing out fruit cups. The talking to the little old woman gave him made Maggie have to fight the strongest urge to giggle she has ever felt. Maggie's own grandmother has passed away not too long ago and this tiny terror of a woman had some of that same light inside of her.

After her shift was over Maggie would chat with the spunky older woman. She very soon came to consider Rose Tyler a friend. A friend who tells the best stories.

Maggie listens with wide eyes as Rose tells stories of amazing places. Of the end of the world and the beginning of adventure. Of aliens who lived and loved and hated as much as any human. But mainly Rose speaks of a man with two faces, leather jackets and pinstriped suits and the human girl who loved him.

Maggie watches on Saturday nights as Rose would lay out a pretty dress and brush her hair a little more carefully. Sundays were special, Sundays he came to visit. Maggie never sees him. No one did. Except Rose. She chatters away to the air by her side. She was ninety years old, she was senile. That is what all the nurses and orderlies said.

Perhaps that is true. But Maggie wonders. She wonders because of the light in Rose's eyes on Sundays. She wonders because out of the corner of her eye she saw a messy haired man wearing a pinstriped suit and trainers. Maggie wonders in the way that a child wonders if her toys are alive. Closing the door to the playroom and opening it again quick-as-you-can to see if she can catch them moving.

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There is always a last day. When you've worked at a rest home long enough you start to sence when it is close. Maggie can see the last day coming for Rose. She doesn't walk anymore, but rests in her wheelchair outside in the garden. She still tells stories. But Maggie catches sight of a tear or two making their way down papery cheeks as Rose speaks of adventure. There is regret in the old woman's voice. The kind of regret that is too heavy for such fragile shoulders to bear. Rose tells Maggie that she regrets not having enough time with him.

Maggie asks who he is, and Rose says, "The Doctor."

Maggie asks, "Doctor who?"

Rose only smiles.

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It is a Saturday night and Maggie is helping Rose change into her pretty yellow night dress. Maggie brushes Rose's hair because tomorrow is Sunday and Rose cannot lift the brush anymore. The brush catches on the silver chain that Rose always wears around her neck.

"Maggie," Rose catches the young woman's hand with her own fragile one, "Tell my stories someday, to someone... anyone... Would you?"

Their eyes meet in the mirror in front of them and Maggie cannot say no.

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It is Sunday and the Doctor is there with her. He holds her hand. No one can see him, but she has long since stopped wondering why.

Rose fades in and out of consciousness, and each time she comes back to him she is grateful for the sight of his face. Her hand strokes his messy hair.

"Doctor, would you open the window? I want to see the stars." He pulls the window open for her and sits down by her side once more.

"Rose Tyler." He smiles at her. "Rose Tyler, are you ready for an adventure?"

"With you, Doctor? Always."

He leans close. Whispers in her ear, "Run." She takes his hand and slips away into darkness. She doesn't open her eyes again.

The clock on the bedside table says 11:59pm. Until it doesn't. And then, suddenly, it's not Sunday anymore.

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When Maggie comes to work early on Monday morning she finds her friend in her bed. The windows are open to the let in the sky and a pink and yellow rose lays by her side.

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Twenty years earlier Rose hadn't gotten to the Doctor in time. She had carried her groceries home. She had heard the sound of the TARDIS in torment. She had run as hard and as fast as fragile bones could bear... But she hadn't run fast enough. The TARDIS doors had closed in her face.

Twenty years earlier the Doctor had burned inside the TARDIS as Rose beat her fists bloody on her walls.

The Doctor had died. Rose had lived. She had mourned him. She had told their story. And at the end of her time the Doctor had come back for her... to bring her home.

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Maggie tells Rose's stories to her daughters and grandchildren. In her home, by Maggie's rocking chair Rose Tyler and the Doctor are forever more the stuff of legend.


End file.
